This post is part of a series about our 2016 USDAA TitleMania experience. Click here for an overview of the event. Click here for our agility overview. Click here for the Rally World Championships.
The dog beach was just as fun and exciting as the trial!
The Beach
One of my goals this year has been to take Blaze to the ocean. He loves water! He turned 15 in February so we are on a time limit. In March we almost visited family in Florida. I considered finding the closest dog-friendly east coast beach.
When I saw how close Geneva, Ohio was to Lake Erie I started looking at dog beach options. I was amazed to find a dog friendly beach at the Geneva State Park, about 15 minutes from the trial!
Thursday
We went on Thursday night – rain and wind resulted in a deserted beach. The signs were kind of vague, pets to be kept on the west edge of the beach but no obvious markers. It looked a little too scary to let the dogs in the water but we had them play on the beach. Blaze wasn’t as impressed as I had hoped. We went back Friday morning – again, empty other than someone on a tractor clearing the beach of litter and debris. The dogs took turns on a longline to play and Viktor went on a walk where he was amazed by a huge swan.
Friday
Friday evening when we returned the beach was crowded with people – play, swimming, picnics – but almost no dogs. Even inappropriately-social Vitkor got beach time! Both Tonks and Viktor got a surprised look when they felt waves lifting them up but they are serious about retrieving and loved playing. Griffin enjoyed it too, no surprise, and Blaze did some swims and barking. The other dog owners kept their dogs on leash and at an appropriate distance. This made it safe and possible for all my dogs to have plenty of play time.
In summary, all the dogs enjoyed it – the younger three loved it. They were so sandy and tired and happy. Blaze was not as amused and just like his pond at home, wanted to spend more time barking in frustration at the water. I will say I’m glad I didn’t drive hundreds and hundreds of miles to the ocean for that response!
Social Dogs
I can’t express how fun it was to be able to go with four different dogs in such a busy environment and have them all be so great. They only eliminated up by the parking lot. The dogs didn’t run away or steal toys or food or chase small children or shake water onto other people. All four just looked like normal, happy, trained dogs – which is (mostly) who they are.